259: Crisis Communication Strategies with Aliza Licht

Free Time with Jenny Blake

Before you post anything, ask: Why am I posting this? Is this within my brand guardrails? Even still, you may find yourself in hot water someday, and it’s important to think through how you will respond (and the pop-up team you will assemble to help) in advance. Today, we’re breaking down the tricky art of crisis communications and apologies with Aliza Licht, author of On Brand, who brings two decades of PR experience to the conversation.

More About Aliza: Aliza Licht is an award-winning marketer, bestselling author, podcaster, personal branding expert, and the founder of LEAVE YOUR MARK, a multimedia brand and consultancy. She advises businesses and mentors individuals on brand building and career development. Licht leverages over two decades of expertise in marketing, communications, and digital strategy in the fashion industry. She was named one of "America's Next Top Mentors" by The New York Times.

Her new book, On Brand: Shape Your Narrative. Share Your Vision. Shift Their Perception is a comprehensive roadmap to building your personal brand. As a social media pioneer and one of the first fashion influencers, Licht created and was the voice of the anonymous social media phenomenon DKNY PR GIRL.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways

• Brand Guardrails: What kind of point of view do you have? What will and won’t you stand behind? What is central to who you are?
• Plan for Crisis Communications before you have a crisis: What team will be involved? An attorney, an HR person (if a bigger business), certain savvy friends. Put that “bat team” together, almost like your to-go bag in an emergency. You won’t be thinking clearly in the middle of a crisis when your brand is everywhere, and not in a good way.
• Social media is very siloed: If a fire starts on one platform, don’t spread your own wildfire by responding to it across every channel. Contain a fire where it started first.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next

If you are faced with a crisis, first understand where you messed up. What did you do that pissed off your community? Second, how quickly can you respond to that? Finally, are there actions you need to take in addition to your words?

📚 Books Mentioned

• On Brand: Shape Your Narrative. Share Your Vision. Shift Their Perception
• Humans of New York and Humans of New York: Stories by Brandon Stanton
• The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
• Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
• Life After College

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Aliza on the web, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Humans of New York: web, IG, book
• Articles: DKNY Responds to Accusations that it Stole Photos from ‘Humans of New York’ Photographer, CBS New York—DKNY, Photographer Settle After Store Uses 'Humans Of New York' Photos Without Permission
• Streisand effect: An unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or censor information, where the effort instead backfires by increasing awareness of that information.
• The New York Times—Is Empowering Corporate Women Enough?
• The New Yorker—The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm

🎧 Related Podcast Episodes

• Leave Your Mark: Jenny Blake on Quietly Unsubscribing From Burnout, Harnessing Free Time, and Why We Should Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds
• Free Time: 005: Brand Obsessed with Emily Heyward
• Pivot: 236: We're All In This Together—From Blame to Belonging with Mike Robbins

📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/259

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